New Kids on the Block

Kinetic Communications moved into an old caboose on cobblestoned Morris Avenue this past  year and have made quite a statement.  I would love to get inside their super cool offices and have a look around.

Birmingham Rouge - Vintage Peanut Roaster

I love the Peanut Depot on Morris Avenue downtown. It's like stepping back in time. They have been roasting peanuts since 1907.  This beauty caught my eye of course!

Urban Oasis

My B'ham photography buddies know just where this is, but my guess is that most of you do not. Hint: Walk down Morris Avenue and hang a right at the parking lot under the railroad tracks. Cool huh???

Camo

The Peanut Depot on Morris Avenue has been roasting peanuts since 1907.  They roasts them all day long Monday through Friday.  Folks come from near and far to buy them in the old fashioned paper bags. Sometimes they're still warm.  It's hard to get out of the store before you start cracking those shells.  A bird buffet.

Shoot Out On Morris Avenue

St. Louis Daily Photoblogger Bob Crowe, and his lovely wife Carolyn visited me earlier this month.  Bob and I have been blog friends since I started this blog in June 2008. We finally met face to face and got to shoot up Birmingham.  We photographers have some crazy ways of getting just the right angle on a shot!

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Parking

Last  Sunday, while showing Bob and Carolyn Crowe Birmingham's historic Morris Avenue, I went poking around for something I'd missed all the other times I'd been there to shoot.  This caught my eye. Photographer's are a weird bunch, I know.

Art Walk Reflection

My friend and talented Birmingham photographer Karim Shamsi Basha reflected in a doorway at Art Walk last fall. I was taking a class from Karim, and as we wandered Morris Avenue in search of photographs, I caught the photographer himself!

Zig, zag, zig,zag.....

Morris Avenue

Fire escapes are eye candy!

Expressing Himself

On Artwalk weekend - Morris Avenue, it was encouraged!

Birmingham Rouge - The Caboose

Morris Avenue

Downtown Birmingham

You Don't Have Mail

Morris Avenue

Looks like a long time since the mailman left anything here.

Alabama HOT!

Last Sunday morning as I was giving my blog friend Daryl, one last shoot around town,  before she jetted off to cooler climes, we stopped first on Morris Avenue. It's one of Birmingham's most photogenic historic places... cobblestones and all.  I've been there many times with photography classes and really thought I'd seen it all. Happily I looked at it with new eyes and found some nice ones. This vintage Birmingham News/ Post Herald thermometer caught my eye, and was especially significant, since Daryl was wilting in our humid temps as I was shooting!

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut!

As promised, Monday I hit the streets to make up for lost time. I got to Historic Morris Avenue and pulled over. The Peanut Depot was open for business! I usually photograph that area on the weekends and have posted an exterior photo *here. I don't know why I never thought about going on a weekday. The Peanut Depot has been right here, roasting peanuts the old fashioned way without oils or preservatives for over 100 years. Stepping inside is like going back in time. The old roasters are cranking away, and they still sell them in brown paper bags. You can get them roasted, salted, cajun and raw. And for you hard core southerners, they have boiled peanuts as well. Check their website and order some.

My thanks to the owner and friendly staff for allowing me to roam all over the place photographing . Oh, and I bought myself a paper bag full for the road. We'll come back here. This is a photographer's buffet as Bob Crowe likes to say.

Peanut Factoid: Approximately 1/2 of all peanuts grown in the USA are grown within a 100 mile radius of Dothan , Alabama, the Peanut Capital of the World!

* When I went back to find the URL for the previous post, I stopped to read the comments. That was shortly after I started my blog. How fun to read the comments and find that most of them are still with me, and I do miss those that aren't!

Stairway to.......First Avenue?

Historic Morris Avenue, in downtown Birmingham,  is one quaint cobblestoned place.  This stairway  leads to Birmingham's First Avenue North.  

The Gatekeepers

This beautiful old gate can be found on historic Morris Avenue.  Morris Avenue is noted for it's 19th, early 20th century warehouses. It is on the National Register for Historical Places.

Patchwork Brick

I was driving down  cobblestoned Morris Avenue last week.  I had been photographing the Peanut Depot, the quaint doorways, storefronts,  and interesting alleyways it has to offer. Down near the end of the street, there were some old warehouses and a few parking lots made when vacant buildings were torn down.  All of a sudden I spotted this wall on the side of a building.  I jumped out and started snapping  pictures.  This might be my favorite brickwork so far.  The vivid colorations of the brick, the random pattern and the corrugated texture are reasons to give this wall a second look.  It makes me wonder if at the time the building was built,  they used leftover brick to complete the side of the building that they thought would never be seen.  Maybe this is one instance when demolition has revealed a lovely surprise.

The Peanut Depot, a Birmingham Tradition

The Peanut Depot on Morris Avenue has been roasting peanuts  the old fashioned way  since 1907, in the same roasters the original owners used !!  Morris Avenue is a quaint cobblestone street that has the delicious aroma of freshly roasting  peanuts 6 days a week.  Outside the depot,  you can find the remains of shells in between the cobblestones, where customers just couldn't wait to crack some on their way out.